Walkerton Man Dies in Residential House Fire in Plymouth

09/23/13 An early morning fire on the city’s southeast side claimed the life of a Walkerton man.

A 9-1-1 call from a neighbor sent Plymouth Police and firefighters from the Plymouth Fire Department to 459 Alexander Street at 5:20 Sunday morning.When firefighters arrived on the scene flames were coming from both sides of the rear section of the home.Although a call for manpower and an engine from Argos was requested, it was cancelled before they could leave their town.Fire Chief Rod Miller said his firefighters were able to knock down the flames in a matter of a short period of time.

Marshall County Coroner Bill Cleavenger and Deputy Coroner Bridget Hite were called to the scene at 7:36a.m. to investigate the fatality.The deceased, 21 year old Anthony Q. Johnson of Walkerton was located in the rear of the residence.An autopsy was conducted in Fort Wayne Sunday morning and the preliminary cause of death has been listed as smoke inhalation with carbon-monoxide poisoning.Toxicology results which won’t be available for a couple of week and will help to determine the official cause of death.

Due to the fatality in this fire the Plymouth Police Department and Plymouth Fire Department Investigator John Pasely were assisted at the scene by the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s office.An official cause of the blaze has not yet been released by fire officials.

Several people were in the residence at the time of the fire and have been interrogated by police.It appears that an arrest of two may have been made at the site of the blaze.WTCA expects to get additional news from Plymouth Police on Monday morning.

This entry was posted on September 22, 2013 at 5:27 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

I have to concur with the previous post. I joined that page thinking it was a good thing and the more I saw the more I realized it was the wrong thing.

It is right not to want drugs in our community — no doubt about that at all. However as most forms of vigilantism are, there is a rush without the due process. The comments I saw on that forum are well over the line in enough causes to warrant a review of the administrators.

I have no doubt in my mind that the mug shots that appear in the media are the result of a very hard investigation of facts by the officers involved. It is also a good deterrent to publish that in the media. However, there is an order to things–that being there is an arrest and a charge, but they are still innocent until proven otherwise in a court of law. Do I think 99% are guilty based on these investigations? yes, but for the sake of that 1% the still hand of justice must prevail.

Finally, many of us are Christians of one form or another. Christ taught us specifically to forgive our brothers as he did us. No exceptions! People must certainly pay for their crimes and the role of sanctioning in this case belongs to the courts — not an angry mob.

Food for thought.

citizenofplymouth on September 22, 2013 at 10:49 pm

As we can see, an official cause of this fire has not been released as of yet. Why then did the facebook page “Meth Watch” make multiple posts today indicating that the cause was meth-related? When is something going to be done about that awful page? I would think that the family of this poor young man could bring an action of slander against Ms. Clevenger and the other administrators of “Meth Watch”. Deleting their posts and trying to cover their tracks regarding this incident does no good; their slanderous comments were up on their page for the entire morning/afternoon. That page only serves to make incorrect assumptions (“report” before they have the facts), and belittle (while sounding very uneducated in the process, I might add) those with addiction. When they do post correct information (rarely), it’s copied and pasted from AM1050 or the Marshall Co Sheriff’s facebook page, so I honestly don’t understand what they bring to the table in terms of content. I hope that our Mayor and that Mr. Chipman do not associate themselves with that page, as Ms. Clevenger seems to like to suggest on a regular basis. The page needs shut down, and the administrators need to find something worthwhile to occupy their time.

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